


A Shot Through the Dark

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Land of Snow, M/M, POV Hatake Kakashi, Peggy Sue, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 05:51:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20466062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Kakashi sucks in a sharp breath, air flooding into the body's lungs. Into his lungs. His body. This is now, not the past. His team isn't dead yet. He can change things.Should he still save the princess?





	A Shot Through the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tuesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/gifts).

> Hi, tuesday! If it's been awhile you might want to reread [Chapter 2 of Sunshine Sidestories](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7898335/2/Sunshine-Sidestories), which ties in with the Land of Snow arc.

It's not a smooth transition. Kakashi's mind feels like stretched taffy, each end grabbed in one of the universe's fat fists and p u l l e d until Kakashi is at his limits, until his thoughts fracture, until his resolve almost melts away, but — _but — _

But there are some things that are deeper than this. Deeper than anything. 

Rule one is no dying. 

Kakashi will not break. 

He thunders back into a physical form; he slams into the physical limits and safety of nerves and neurons, blood and muscle and bone. The sensation of Shikako's chakra crawling into his skin and sinking its hooks into his soul has long since faded, and now new feedback hits. 

This body is running. Its legs burn. Its chest heaves. The smell of blood filters through two layers of masks — the body is wearing the Wolf mask, and an ANBU uniform. It has its sword drawn and its chakra primed, its heart thumping the quick beat of a body in the middle of combat. 

The hallway is polished wood and delicately decorated paper and there are three other people running in step with Kakashi, all of them also ANBU, all of them also with swords drawn, breath quick, blood high. This body is leading them, and their chakra is familiar: Bear and Tiger and Bird. They're long dead — more than ten years since he saw them last, since they promised to catch up with him and then didn't. 

Kakashi sucks in a sharp breath, air flooding into the body's lungs. Into _his_ lungs. His body. This is now, not the past. His team isn't dead yet. He can change things. 

Should he still save the princess? 

Kazahana Castle is practically overflowing with Snow ninja, in numbers that _must_ represent most of the village. It's a proper coup, motivated and vigorous. It is, approximately, none of Kakashi's business. The Sandaime hadn't impressed with the decision last time, although ten years later when Kazahana Koyuki's return to Land of Snow turned the country in a strong ally Tsunade had certainly seemed appreciative... but Hatake Kakashi doesn't care for Sarutobi Hiruzen's near-future opinion, nor for the opinion of the far-future Godaime Hokage. What really matters is: 

What would Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikako want him to do? 

What will make it possible to look them in the face, when the time comes, and know he did his best? 

Naruto would want him to save everyone. Kazahana Koyuki _and_ her father _and_ the loyalists who are likely even now dying to the blades and jutsu of their countrymen. The servants and the horses and the castle's mousing cats, too, probably. 

Sasuke would want him to murder Kazahana Dotō for being kin-slaying traitorous scum and save Kazahana Koyuki and Kazahana Sōsetsu along the way. 

Shikako... Shikako would understand the choice to save no one except his team. Shikako would understand avenging no one, leaving the princess to her fate, and abandoning Land of Snow to Kazahana Dotō. But Shikako had also sent him back with explicit instructions. 

Change everything, she'd said. Don't rely on your knowledge of future events, just do everything better than before. 

Bear tilts his mask up, smelling the air, and says, "Things are starting to burn." 

Kakashi had never figured out if the fire had been caused by jutsu side effects or deliberately set to distract and panic the castle's defenders, but it doesn't really matter. The Land of Snow Daimyō is unconscious from bloodloss under Kakashi's hands but thanks to Kakashi's clumsy medical jutsu he's alive, and now Kakashi can smell the fire, too, filtering into the room from outside and from the hall. 

"We're leaving," Kakashi says, turning Kazahana Sōsetsu over so that he's face down. "Bring her over here." 

Kazahana Koyuki is sobbing into Bird's shoulder, but at least she's stopped fighting like a wild thing to get to her father. Bird approaches, but hesitantly. 

"Taichō," she says, "Since we already intervened—" 

"They're both coming with us," Kakashi agrees easily. He pricks his thumb with a chakra-sharpened tooth until it bleeds freely and yanks down the back of Sōsetsu's collar. There's a seal he's seen Shikako use again and again and again on Rock Lee, a version of henge that can be used by even a civilian. 

He gives Sōsetsu the bat mask, an ANBU uniform, and a slightly different wound than the one Kakashi has just finished healing. It takes almost no chakra — Shikako's seals are always efficient. 

"Bear," Kakashi says, gesturing to Sōsetsu even as he turns towards the terrified little girl clutched in Bird's arms. 

Bear steps forward and picks Sōsetsu up in a comrade carry, folding the daimyō over his shoulder like a sack of rice. Bird holds the princess still while Kakashi puts two seals drawn in blood on her: one on the back of her neck to disguise her as a mission pack, one on the front of her already-bloody clothing to help her stick to Bird's back. 

"Hold tight," Bird whispers to the princess, and then they make for the east exit. 

Kakashi had carried the princess last time, and that had been a mistake. 

Not because Bird and Bear and Tiger aren't competent, dangerous ninja, but none of them are _as_ competent or _as_ dangerous as Kakashi, in the present or the now-erased past. Kakashi is something else, something that came with edges pre-sharpened. 

He's taken mask off. There's no way they're going to get through this without their involvement being known — no way Kakashi can get his team out without revealing his own identity — so it's better to use it to intimidate. 

Land of Snow's wind bites at his bared skin, especially when he lifts his hitai-ate to reveal Obito's Sharingan. A storm is incoming, a blizzard that Kakashi had fled through with the princess last time. They'll have to be quick to make their escape with Bear carrying an unconscious, fully-grown man. 

Rōga Nadare gets in their way, of course. "Leaf ninja," he says. "How interesting. Have you seen a princess around? We've been ordered to find her." His eyes flick to the ANBU folded over Bear's shoulder, but Shikako's seals are first-rate even if Shikako is currently a toddler. Rōga won't know for _sure_ no matter how long he looks, and he doesn't even glance at Bird or her mission pack. 

Not that he'll be able to tell anyone even if he did know for certain, because Kakashi doesn't intend to make time for the posturing of third-rate traitors. 

"Oh, a _Sharingan_," Rōga says when Kakashi opens Obito's eye. "This will be interesting." 

The eye that opens in grief sees the faces of the gods, Kakashi thinks, and it's as familiar as breathing to let Kamui whirl to life. Chakra-absorbing armor is no defense against this. 

"Holy shit," Bear says as the team leap over what remains of their opponents. Dealing with them had been, actually, pretty boring. 

Kakashi's eyes burn, the nerves sparking with false signals as his eyes struggle to adjust to what is physically a new technique. He doesn't reply or try to explain. 

What's important is to beat the storm. To go home. Kakashi will cleave through anything that gets in their way like a hot knife, like Shikako's 'lightsaber'. 

ANBU teams are ill-equipped to deal with the care and feeding of a foreign daimyō and his young daughter, but they make do. First they shelter from the blizzard, then they steal extra clothes for the princess so that she won't freeze, and then Kakashi begins the complicated process of pretending like he doesn't know exactly which boat they should stow away on to return to Land of Fire, which mostly consists of just double-checking his memory against the harbor master's records. 

Sneaking out of the country is even easier than sneaking in was. It's easier even than Kakashi remembers, probably because he can leave the rest of his team with the civilians and go sneak in and out of the harbor master's office himself. 

They creep onto the boat and down into the hold, where Bird holds a false surroundings genjutsu over them and Tiger uses a sound-buffering jutsu to make sure nothing they say or do will be overheard. The princess cries, too, and not exactly silently. 

Kakashi tries not to give away how chipper he feels about this whole situation via tone or body language. 

The mission is a shit-show of unbelievable proportions to the rest of his team. 

"What do you think Hokage-sama is going to say?" Tiger asks when the boat has undeniably made its way into open ocean without any kind of alarm being raised and the princess has been lulled to sleep by the rocking of the boat. 

Kakashi shrugs, because who cares? Sarutobi Hiruzen can't undo what's been done and he can't punish them in any way that really matters without basically admitting he can't control his ANBU — and that's even leaving aside the fact that the politics of Kakashi's decisions are solid. Kazahana Dotō will be a thorn in Land of Fire's side for a decade if nothing is done about him. 

Much, much later, Kakashi puts his mask and other ANBU gear away and goes to find Maito Gai where he knows Maito Gai will be — Team Chōza's training field. 

Gai isn't yet a jōnin of high enough standing to have a permanent, reserved training field, but Akimichi Chōza has hung on to his genin team's training field for years and years. It keeps the team tight-knit and it gives Gai the space he needs for his taijutsu. It does mean that it's hard to find Gai there alone, though. 

Today it's Shiranui Genma, the both of them embroiled in a spar with complex rules that Kakashi picks only in bit and pieces. No strikes with the right arm for Gai, no spitting senbon for Genma, no jutsu for either of them. Team Chōza has always believed in preparing for the worst, and this time it looks like Genma's practicing working round a broken jaw and Gai is working around a complex fracture. 

It's nice to see Gai so young, and carefree, and happy. It's even nice to see Genma, and bizarrely enough Kakashi finds himself regretting that Ebisu isn't around. Time travel is clearly even more dangerous than was previously thought. 

Too bad he can't update Shikako. 

Gai and Genma stop their spar when they notice him. They're both obviously surprised to see him. Kakashi isn't sure exactly how long it's been, but... probably more than a few months. Maybe even up to a year. 

Kakashi had been content to wallow in ANBU, before, but there are rules now. Rules Kakashi aims to follow, because Shikako had been very clear. 

Don't be alone, she'd ordered him while tracing ink and blood across his back. Don't make me have to worry about you, sensei, when we both know you need a team. Trust someone. There are a lot of good options. 

"He's alive?" Genma mutters, and Kakashi reflects that Genma probably hasn't seen him since the night of the Kyūbi attack. 

"Kakashi," Gai says, without replying to Genma. 

There's a tone in Gai's voice Kakashi hadn't recognized — hadn't been _willing_ to recognize — the last time he was 15. It's not just careful and serious but... tender. 

And familiar. 

Kakashi hadn't realized Gai's feelings went this far back. 

He raises a hand. "Can we talk?" he asks. All of his plans have been swept out of his head so he doesn't know what he's going to say, but he knows he doesn't want to say it in front of a 16 year old Shiranui Genma. 

Gai nods. He looks at Genma. 

Genma says, "Uh, right, I've got... that thing?" and then shunshins off the training field. 

A strange silence hangs between Kakashi and Gai. This is, Kakashi realizes with dawning horror, _awkward_. He can't remember the last time he felt _awkward_ around Maito Gai, but here it is: Gai is looking at him with eager eyes but restrained body language, like a dog that wants to jump and pounce and bark but knows it must not. 

Gai is excited to see him, but thinks he can't show it. 

Hatake Kakashi has been — and continues to be — the worst friend. 

"Did you want to train?" Gai asks, hopeful and guessing, gesturing at the field behind him that's already torn up from his and Genma's efforts. 

"No," Kakashi says, and then when Gai wilts he tacks on, "...not yet? I wanted to..." To see his best friend. To revel in Maito Gai being alive and well. To slink out of ANBU and into the sun and bask in the company of the person he's always, always been able to trust the most. 

To tell Gai the truth, somehow, someway, because Shikako had said he should tell someone and who else could there possibly be? 

Gai is still watching him, now with a crease of concern between his eyes. Kakashi has been silent for too long. 

"There's a mission we should take together," Kakashi says, abandoning his previous sentence altogether. It's why he'd sought Gai out, after all. Everything else can wait awhile. 

Gai's eyebrows jump. 

"A long A-rank," Kakashi goes on, and wishes he'd crossed the distance between them before beginning to talk. If they weren't standing across the field from each other, Kakashi could stretch a hand out and brush dirt off Gai's shoulder. Or something else transparent but plausibly meaningless. Anything to touch him again after all this time. 

"I am always honored to be your comrade," Gai says. A grin his splitting his face, curving his eyes up, making him bounce a little with eager joy. 

"Good," Kakashi says, and finds himself relieved even though he knew Gai would say yes. Now he just has to talk Sarutobi Hiruzen into sending them to Land of Snow, and that should be easy. He'd looked almost relieved to have Kakashi offering political opinions earlier, and it probably would be... _responsible_... for Kakashi to offer to clean up his own mess. "Good," Kakashi repeats. "There's no one I'd rather overthrow a corrupt regime with." 


End file.
